BEGINING IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

We leave John’s on Monday morning ready to acquaint ourselves with both the camper and the Blue Mountains, we head off to Wentworth Falls just a few miles up the road, this huge waterfall is easily accessible by walking tracks we don’t venture to the bottom of the falls as this involves hundreds of steps cut into the rock side and we want to push on to

OUR FIRST DAMP LUNCH

Katoomba, a town near the highest point of the Blue Mountains. Here we stop at the local caravan park for two nights, spending the next day walking,

A VERY FESTIVE LOOKING CAMP OFFICE

first to Echo point with panoramic views out over the Southern Blue Mountains and the Three Sisters rock formation,

THREE SISTERS ROCK FORMATION

VIEW FROM ECHO POINT

then continuing down into the valley floor passed several waterfalls eventually ending up in the rain forest at the bottom this is really peaceful with only a handful of people about, SURROUNDED BY TREE FERNS AS WE APPROACH THE BOTTOM

Jan’s new hobby of birdwatching is starting to take shape and we see several different varieties of birds on this walk.

KATOOMBA FALLS

Near the end of the walk we come across the scenic railway, it’s the old mine workings railway now converted to passenger cars (well in this age they are purpose built just with the tourist in mind) and unfortunately full of Japanese tourist who are very noisy and always seem to travel about in groups of twenty or more taking an endless amount of photos but luckily for us they are all coming down, where as we want to go back to the top so it works out alright. This railway is the steepest funicular railway in the world and passes through a natural tunnel in a slot existing in the cliff face near the top and then travels down the cliff face at angles of between 44 & 52 degrees for some 200 metres until stopping at the bottom (well hopefully). The weather has again improved what with arriving in rain and mist yesterday, we are now back to sunshine and warm temperatures thank heavens. AN OLD MINE WORKERS HUT,PERHAPS A FUTURE PLACE FOR US TO SETTLE, BUT AFTER A CLOSER OF INSPECTION OF THE KITCHEN I DON'T THINK THE LADY OF THE HOUSE IS IMPRESSED, SO PERHAPS NOT.Then it’s off to Blackheath another of the highest spots on the mountain a lot of people call this Bleakheath and over the next couple of days we are about to find out why, we arrive in glorious sunshine and make our booking at the local caravan site before venturing off on the canyon walk, a circular walk starting off at Evans Lookout dropping down into the canyon following the bottom of it and then climbing back up the canyon wall and along the top to our start point about 5km in all, we had everything on this walk tunnels, sheer edges, boulder jumping in the stream beds, rainforest and then the views from the top probably our best so far with so much variety.

CANYON WALK

We started in the sunshine walked through a thunderstorm and finished in the wet misty drizzle very similar to English weather and then spent the rest of the night in the camper with the drizzly rain outside yes there right, bleakheath very apt let’s hope it improves. The wet Lake District style weather continues and we move down from the highest spot to one of the lowest spots, Jenolan caves, bush camping overnight in a pine forest only us and the rain what else could you want apart from an umbrella, lucky I have one! AN EERIE FIRST BUSHCAMPThere’s nothing else for it but to go underground at least the rain can’t get to us there. Jenolan caves is one of the most extensive and complex limestone cave systems in the world and there are several different caves to visit we opt to do the Lucas cave first mainly because it’s cheaper than some of the others and once you’ve done one you get a 50% reduction on all subsequent visits this we really enjoyed but when we emerged it was raining even harder, oh well never mind at least the camper is getting a good waterproof test and so far is passing with flying colours. We drive out to Kanangra Walls National park this has a camping area 25 km down a gravel track which is beginning to reassemble a river, surprise surprise we are the only ones there and are wondering if it’s a good idea or not when two other people turn up to camp for the night before going off canyoning, luckily there’s a shelter there and so with a roaring fire going we settle down to a sociable evening with Doug & John, Doug is a history teacher and is full of questions about England and several of the interesting places we have visited on our way to Australia, John is retired and is off on a ship to Antarctica for three weeks in March perhaps we should continue further south his trip sounds really good! The next morning the rain has stopped but the wind is now starting to increase in strength we go off for a walk over the plateau and nearly lose Jan over the edge when a huge gust knocked her off her seat and back towards me, if it had been the other way there was a drop of some 400 feet so that would have taken some climbing back out of,

THE NEXT NIGHTS CAMP IS A LOT DRIER

EASTERN WATER DRAGON AT THE FALLS

I didn’t notice this small disaster as I was busily trying to focus the camera on some stunning scenery, but I certainly heard about it afterwards though. After a couple of days in Kanangra Park we decide to move on in pursuit of some better weather we stop at the caves to visit the River cave well it is my birthday and it gets me out of the rain a far cry from a year ago when this was the first day of my retirement, then it’s off to Oberon for civilisation and a campsite with showers, even the flies have stopped bothering us now we haven’t showered for a couple of days. Oberon what a bleak place which isn’t helped by the fact that a heavy downpour coincides with us arriving and opening the doors of the truck, now where did I put that umbrella, we both decide to push on North to Lithgow the next town going north the weather must improve at some point even if it does mean getting up to Darwin. We arrive at Lithgow and guess what as we walk into the information centre it starts to pour again, so back in the truck, we head off further north this time up to Mudgee but a few km’s before we find Lake Windermere with a lovely little campsite beside it and hot showers, this is it finally, we set up in the evening sunshine thinking what a good move it was to keep tracking north when the skies cloud over and the rain arrives not for the first time on this trip I end up cooking dinner under my brolly.

THE PERFECT BIRTHDAY GIFT MY AUSTRALIAN KEYRING COMPLETE WITH LIGHT, SO I CAN SEE WHERE I AM AND ALSO WHICH COUNTRY I'M IN.

But here we are now in Mudgee a nice little town surrounded by vineyards and bathed in sunshine yes for two days now nothing but sun perhaps summer is finally arriving. The Mudgee area is full of vineyards and small parcels of land about 10 acres in size with some nice four bedroomed properties on them, this again is another potential place we could settle you can pick up most properties around here for about two hundred and thirty thousand pounds and with the rates being about five hundred pounds a year definitely very manageable. We visit Coolah Tops National Park, this is similar to Thetford Forest but without the people, set on top of a high plateau with waterfalls dropping off the edges,

A VIEW FROM THE EDGE & THE WATERFALL DISAPPEARING OVER THE EDGE

we are the only ones up there and so look forward to a quiet bushcamp, we pick the barrack ground camp site which happens to be full of Kangaroos’ as we arrive, no problem we think but as we set up camp the roo’s become very interested into what we are we doing and it’s similar to being back in India but instead of people stood around watching us we have roo’s stood only three feet away watching us, mind you we did get to see our first roo carrying a joey in her pouch, we got up in the morning and they were still there at the bottom of the step waiting to see us, needless to say Jan didn’t go out to the loo that night! Next stop Gulgong this is an old Gold mining town but is very much like what I pictured an old Australian town to look like with covered walkways and old two storey buildings, we go into the pioneer’s museum where they have a huge selection of items from the 250 year history of Australia, it was in here on the fire section display that I came across an Suffolk & Ipswich fire helmet circa 1955, marvellous you travel halfway around the world to discover that Ray Leonard has already been there before you probably to do his training!! And then left his helmet there. We drive up to Musselbrook to meet up with Jacko & Jane our group leaders from the trip, spending a very pleasant day touring the vineyards of the Hunter Valley, but only after driving through the open cast coal mines and power stations that also happen to frequent the valley. We had a very interesting afternoon as Jacko was driving and we could concentrate on the tasting, which Jan, Jane and myself managed to do very well. We even managed to discover something new and also something different, the first was a Shiraz Viognier and out of the four of the five wineary’s that we visited this was very nice, it’s a Shiraz mixed with a little white wine to make it even smoother we were both quite taken with it. The second was a dessert wine which up until now I have not been a big fan of but after trying the Raspberry wine we all ended up buying a bottle because we liked it so much, they even had recipes there for the wines, so on boxing day for dessert we shall be having summer Berry Bread & Butter Pudding- served with clotted cream and a warm shot of raspberry wine courtesy of John’s oven and Jans cookery skills (let’s hope we can find them). Well after all that we thought we had better do some cheese tasting just to ensure our taste buds were working on solids as well as liquids and nowdays a lot of the bigger vineyards do both so by the end of the afternoon you won’t be hungry or thirsty you probably won’t be able to stand up either, that’s where having a good driver comes in to look after you “thanks Jacko”. It was while we was in the last vineyard Hunter Gardens that I discovered under their beer section (yes some even do beer tastings as well) Suffolk Strong Vintage Ale brewed by Greene King in Bury St Edmunds one that I had never seen before probably only made for export unless anybody knows any different?, but at 6% and blended from two classic ales BPA &Old 5X it was very nice. Here we are one day before Xmas after spending the last two days on the beach at Anna Bay near Nelson Bay, the beach is backed by the Stockton Bight the longest moving sand dunes in the southern hemisphere, stretching 35km back to Newcastle, it was on this campsite that for the first time ever we got a en suite toilet and shower on our powered site, yes that is how the owners of the site describe it, all we need now is the covered walkway for when it’s raining. Well this completes another stage of our travels, the campervan passed this trial period with flying colours, even if I discovered afterwards (I always read the instruction booklets to late) that the awning is only to be used in sunshine and is not meant to keep the rain off although it did nicely, the only drawback being the gallons of water that collected in it, handy if you wanted a cold shower! but let’s hope the rest of the trip turns out to be a tad drier than these first few weeks, the Blue mountains has been a wonderful place to visit and discover now we are back to Johns for Xmas and into Sydney for the New Year, before heading off southwards in January. Jan & I wish all our family & friends back home and abroad wherever you may be, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we hope everything goes well for you all in the coming year, we look forward to meeting up in 2010ish if not before in some far flung land.

CHEERS